The Shadow Hunters
by Ashbringer36
Summary: The Shadow Hunters are a ragtag team of racers bound by nothing but a Need for Speed, a need which leads them to the Acceledrome alongside the Teku and the Mainiacs. Yet when it becomes clear that something from two of the Hunters pasts begins appearing in the realms the fate of the mission hinges on this team being able to live up to their name and hunt the shadows of their pasts
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Playing the Underground.

The revving of car engines, the chatter of excited onlookers and the blaring of techno music, these were the sounds that could be heard within the old abandoned warehouse that would be the starting line to a race over the highway roads outside LA, a race designated to be a team race between two teams of four racers.

Thus the team which called themselves the Shadow Hunters were standing in a circle leaning against their given cars conversing amongst themselves while waiting for the race to be called to a start.

"Alright guys 2 miles across the highway area." Came the voice of the teams' leader Xiomara Backar, a girl who stood at 5 ft 11 with red hair tied into a pony tail and a cold pair of blue eyes wearing a black leather jacket with a symbol on the back of a smiling skull with two crossing daggers... the team symbol.

"Two miles, seems oddly tame compared to what's been going down recently." Came the Japanese accent of Takeo Miraki, the teams' resident daredevil street racer. With slick and combed black hair adorning a pair of calm hazel eyes, Takeo wore a dark black with red lining jump suit also featuring the team symbol on his back.

"Well to be fair I heard rumours people had been complaining at the finish line it took too for us to show up," came the serious American accent of Jessica Muller, the teams' medic. with ear length brunette hair adorning a pair of kind red eyes and wearing a black vest atop a dark purple undershirt with the team symbol on her back and in a badge spot on her vest.

"Yeah heard that too, though I will say I like the new setup… faster race means a lot more action," Said the teams second in command Jole Backar. Jole had greasy red hair that went a little past his ears and the same hazel eyes as his sister and wearing a pair of jeans and a dark grey hoodie with the team symbol on the back in dark blue.

Of course the team of four would have said more but just then the music stopped and a man wearing several sets of gold chains around his neck stepped up onto the rafters.

"Alright ladies and gents, do we have a treat for ya'll tonight, a team matchup between our local team the Shadow Hunters, and the out of town newcomers, the Fiery Streaks." the man said to wild applause from the crowd below.

"Now the rules are simple, you all know the finish line is the starting line after you pass the midway point 2 miles from here, get there by any route necessary, the first person to cross the finish line wins each member of their team five hundred big ones."

The cheering was wild but to the Shadow Hunters it was all drowned out as they all headed for their vehicles

"See you in the real world." Takeo said to his teammates as he opened the door to his sports car the 24/seven, a sports car with a spoiler and a suspension only a few inches off the ground and an almost neon design of black and red. Revving the engine revealed a moderate power behind it but still a clean sports car feel.

"Alright remember, no prisoners," Jessica said smirking as she too, got into her vehicle, the 40 Somethin, a vehicle with dark blue lines across the edges with red lightning streaks across the door. This car was as sleek as they come with a low to the ground build and a suspension that let the body almost touch the ground. Revving of the engine clearly revealed that's what it was with a firmly clean and almost silent and subtle power behind it.

"Hey don't sweat it, we got this." Jole said getting into his own vehicle, the Jester, a truck with a suspension holding the vehicle just a little higher off the ground than 24/seven. The truck itself had a red flame design on it with dark blue lining the skirt and back of the vehicle and once the engine was revved it became clear that unlike Takeo and Jessica this was a far more powerful machine with a satisfying loud rumble from the 600 horsepower beauty.

"Alright kids no non sense time starts now." Xiomara said as she climbed into her vehicle. Easily the most powerful of the group, the three feet off the ground Mega Duty truck was clearly an off road vehicle through and through with large tires and a powerful suspension, all adorning a body with a red hood, black doors and dark blue trim. With the Mega Duty the engine revved with a loud and powerful rumble one would expect out of a 750 horsepower powerhouse.

All four drivers had dawned their helmets as they drove into the starting position, against their opponents who had a series of sports cars with light blue, yellow and white colour schemes.

None of the shadow hunters took too much heed to their opponents each one already beginning to formulate their own line across the desolate ground before them as the flag girl began walking between Mega Duty and the slick sports car that belonged the leader of the opposition.

Turning to the two teams with a smirk on her face the blonde haired girl raised her hands with a white flag in hand and prepared to bring it down to signal the beginning of the race.

Gripping the wheels of each of their respective vehicles with one hand the other on the clutch each driver waited for the countdown.

"3, 2, 1, GO!" The flag girl yelled and the moment she said go every driver present pushed their gear shifter into second gear and pressed down on the gas.

Due to the lightness of the vehicle Jessica was first out of the gate closely followed by two of the opposition and Takeo with Jole and Xiomara falling a bit behind.

The first mile of the race was on a straightaway and not a minute after getting out of the gate had Jole and Xiomara begin catching up Jole smirking as he sideswiped on of their opposition causing them to lose a great deal of control and fall into last place while the leader of the Fiery Streaks began going head on with Jessica causing her to lose some amount of control.

Glaring through her side window Jessica moved her thumb to a red button on her steering wheel and hovered over it.

The leader of the team tried pushing against her with a powerful bump that would have surely knocked the lithe car spinning out of control but just as the driver turned the wheel and turned towards her Jessica pressed down on the button and immediately a burst of blue flame burst out of the exhaust pipes blasting the young girl forward with a powerful burst of speed.

The leader who had not expected the concentrated version of the Noss tried to correct himself having been relying on the push back of the car to do that for him and as he lost his balance found himself being slammed into at the by Xiomara sending him spinning .

"Nice move Jess." Jole said as he watched his friend take the lead followed closely by Xiomara.

"Thanks man." Jess said even as she shifted down a gear knowing she'd want to save the extra power especially now that they were nearing the highway which was were the slick driver would shine most.

Takeo meanwhile had already taken another path that took him to the highway, and so meeting up with Xiomara and Jessica on the road he spoke into the radio, "Fancy meeting you ladies here."

"Shut up and drive Takeo." Xiomara said irritably as she pursed her lips.

Jole was at a back position but he knew that this wasn't the worst position to be in, being in the second heaviest vehicle in this race he was more than capable of driving aggressively to block the movements of at least one driver.

Indeed as one of the sports cars tried passing him he made one swift flick of the vehicle and pushed against the tail end of the car sending it spinning backwards and ended up crashing against a fence which fell over under the cars weight.

"We're doing good drivers, keep going." Xiomara said aggressively as the three drivers out in front took off down the almost deserted highway.

After that opening the race went smoothly enough, the Fiery Blazes practically falling like dominos in the wake of the synergy of the Shadow Hunters. Thus not 10 minutes later Xiomara crossed the line followed a second later by Takeo and Jessica.

"And that is why we are the best." Jess said getting out and high fiving Takeo while Xiomara just got out of her vehicle with a neutral expression.

Two of the Fiery Blaze team members showed up across the line followed two minutes later by a third and then a minute later followed by Jole and finally the fourth member of the Fiery Blaze.

"And there we have it; the returning champions have won once again." The announcer yelled into his microphone as he passed bundles of money to all four members of the Shadow Hunters.

"Let's give one more round of applause for the Shadow Hunters!" the announcer said and as he did so loud screaming and clapping resounded around them as the four teammates all got back into their cars, all but Xiomara waving to their fans as they drove away.

"Another successful run!" Jessica said over the radio as the four drivers headed back into the city.

"You know you all might hate me for this but... I really want to go hunting for a better challenge." Takeo said, Takeo very much having a self-improvement mentality, even if he knew he could never truly achieve it he strove for perfection in his driving.

"And what would you have in mind." Xiomara asked rolling her eyes the leader of the team indifferent altogether

"Well I don't know, we'll ask Kayden when we get back to the garage, see if he knows of any better opportunities." Takeo responded.

"I'm with Takeo on this one; a better challenge would be a way better adventure." Jole said showing his side as an adrenaline junkie.

Xiomara groaned as she said into the radio. "And your thoughts on this Jessica?"

"I don't mind staying, but if we go then I'd follow the Hunters anywhere." Jessica said displaying her great loyalty to the team despite being the latest addition to the team only being with them for several months as opposed to the siblings who had started the team and Takeo who had been racing with the team for two years.

Xiomara nodded even as she spotted the old garage and began pulling into the shed followed by her teammates.

"So you lot how'd it go?" Came the ragged voice of Kayden Smith, the teams' mechanic who was rolling out from under a red Subaru he had been hired to fix.

"Great," Xiomara said holding up her wad of $500 while the other three did the same.

"Alright thanks kids." Kayden said as the four of them handed their mechanic the money. "Now before any of you think of heading to dream land there is someone who wanted to talk to you."

"What about?" Xiomara asked rather suspiciously.

"Said something about needing real good racers so I told her to wait in the waiting room." Kayden said.

"Can't hurt to hear her out," Jessica said shrugging.

"Alright then come on, mind letting me do the talking?" Xiomara asked.

"As long as it stays verbal talking," Jole said making a reference to Xiomaras short temper.

"Fair enough," Xiomara said casually as she stepped through a door that lead to the front office of the mechanics shop.

Sitting in one of chairs with legs crossed and a magazine in hand was black haired woman wearing a blue shirt and grey overalls.

"Thank you for seeing me," the girl said smiling as she got to her feet, "My name is Lani Tam." she said holding out a hand.

Xiomara looked at it and diplomatically shook it saying, "Xiomara Backar, now if you don't mind can we get right to the point with what you wanted to talk to us about."

"Right, right," Lani said nodding, "I'm here working for a man named Peter Tezla, he's recruiting drivers for a mission." Lani explained.

"What kind of mission?" Xiomara asked crossing her arms.

"You'll have to see it to believe it but we're talking about racing in another dimension." Lani explained.

"Another dimension?" Xiomara said disbelievingly.

"If you're willing to hear us out there's a meeting with the other drivers being recruited going on tomorrow out in the desert." Lani explained

"Alright then would we know of these other drivers?" Xiomara asked.

"Drivers from the Teku and Metal Maniac racing teams." Lani said calmly.

"Ay, two of the best teams out there, a chance to speak with their members would be excellent." Takeo interjected.

Xiomara turned to her team, and while Jessica was just leaning against a wall clearly staying true to her "I'll follow the hunters' statement was giving a light smile, Takeo and Jole however were both very much excited for this chance indeed the fiery leader caught quite the glint in her brothers eyes, one she had rarely seen... a glint that made her relent almost instantly.

"Alright when do we head out?" Xiomara asked.

"If the team is still awake we can head out right now actually get a head start against the other drivers.

"Sounds like a plan" Xiomara said with a nod before turning to her team. "Come on Shadow Hunters, it's time to fade from sight!"

 **A/N - what's up lads and lasses, my name is Ashbringer36 I'd like to welcome you to my new fanfiction.**

 **So hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter of the Shadow Hunters, I hope to have a new chapter up soon (a week or two at most) so until then I will spare you all the long winded Authors note and instead just take my bows and say**

 **Until Next Time Ashbringer36 Out**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1

The Storm Begins

"Remind me to thank Draydon for the suspension job he did!" Jessica said through the radio making it clear that this terrain wasn't the best for 40 Somethin.

Following Lani who was riding a purple motorcycle the Shadow Hunters had taken to the desert and even as the sun began to rise it was perfectly obvious that one member of their group was far from used to pure off-roading, or at the very least her car wasn't equipped for it.

"Oh come on it's not that bad, it's flat ain't it?" Jole responded with a grin.

"You drive through this on a suspension barely two inches off the ground and tell me that!" Jessica responded with a roll of her eyes.

"Oh I'd love to, sounds like a lot of fun," Jole said with a very clear note of glee in his voice.

Xiomara in all her cold and calm demeanor couldn't help but smile at this whole conversation. It was always refreshing to hear the banter of her teammates even if she tried to avoid participating.

"You two, perhaps you should save this banter for later!" Takeo said before grinning, "and put that time to better use in seeing if you can beat me to that cube."

"You're on!" Jole responded shifting into his third gear and pressing down on the gas pedal while Takeo did the same.

Xiomara who was at this point driving right beside Lani saw the two boys race away and only smiled as she shook her head.

"So do those two have an inner competition going on?" Lani asked yelling up at Xiomara who had her window rolled down.

"No they're just our resident adrenaline junkies," Xiomara yelled back, "All in good fun."

Lani smiled under her blue helmet before turning back to the front and watching the male members of the team let off their steam.

However despite the note of challenge, the drivers of 24/seven and Jester found themselves neck and neck almost perfectly to the point where even as they both stopped just outside the cube they knew they'd have needed a camera to see who won.

"Woohoo!" Jole yelled as he got out of his truck whooping his fists into the air.

"Indeed," Takeo said smiling as he too got out of his vehicle and proceeded to high-five his teammate.

It was only about half a minute later that Lani, Jessica, and Xiomara caught up to the two speed-demons.

"Alright you two you've had your fun," Xiomara said sternly once stopped.

"Yes ma'am," Jole said in a joking tone of voice which only served to make Jessica and Takeo chuckle slightly.

Lani put up a kickstand on her motorcycle and pulled off her helmet before nodding to the four drivers she was escorting,

"Ah, and the rest of our group has arrived." Spoke a clearly African accent from just around the corner.

"Hey Kadeem," Lani said smiling.

"Hang on... Lani!" Came the excited voice of Vert Wheeler who likewise came around the corner.

"Hey Vert, long time no see," Lani responded with a nod as she shook hands with her former teammate.

"Well there's no time like the present and Tezla will be expecting us any minute." Kadeem said, "Best save the reunion party for later."

Takeo and Jole smiled and nodded at this giving each other a fist bump before running back to their cars and dawning their helmets once more.

From there Kadeem driving his old Crazy 8s vehicle and Lani on her motorcycle lead the 10 recruits through a maze of rocks.

"Stay behind us and match our speed," Kadeem said.

It was a silent trip really even when Kadeem and Lani made a jump over a chasm into a cliff only to vanish behind what was clearly a hologram the only person to freak out was Monkey. Though every member of the Shadow Hunters had most certainly felt their hearts skip a beat they still powered through and made the jump through the hologram landing inside the large structure with the other drivers.

It was clear they were inside some kind of Hallowed out cave with a red track weaving all around them. The track alone being enough to make Joles jaw drop and twinkles of excitement enter his eyes.

Lights switched on as at that moment a golden hologram appeared in the middle of the large dome. Glasses wearing and a beard, the hologram depicted a man whom several members of the Teku and Metal Maniacs knew was in fact of Dr. Peter Tezla.

"Welcome to the Acceledrome!" the head boomed.

"Well, this guy has a thing for being overly dramatic!" Xiomara mumbled as the doctor began talking about how the wheel had been opening new worlds he called the Racing Realms.

"I wonder if he's compensating for something," Jole said grinning.

"Real mature," Came a rather irritated voice from over where the Teku racers had been, the voice belonging to Karma Eiss.

"Yeah well you've got to have some fun in a lifetime, no point in living life as a sour puss!" Takeo responded with a smile on his face.

"Alright let's not get carried away, come on we can discuss this in more detail in the conference room," Lani said rolling her eyes in exasperation at the exchange between racers.

Another 10 minutes passed with a long winded discussion from the floating robot named Gig and while his explanation of how the realms were opening made Jole and Jessica both contemplate laying their heads back and attempt to fall asleep Xiomara and several members of the Teku tried to keep this information somewhere in their minds.

"So you're telling us that a group of ancient robots are entering these Racing Realms and getting things from the end. Thus you need us to go in completely unknowing of what might be coming?" Xiomara asked standing up with her arms crossed.

"It's a dire matter," Kadeem said, "We wouldn't ask for your help if it wasn't,"

More would have been said but just then an alarm began sounding as the large golden replica of the wheel of power in the middle of the Acceledrome began moving.

"Alright," Jole almost yelled getting to his feet, any amount of dreariness completely gone, "Come on let's go!"

Kurt and Vert however looked towards each other and nodded, "We need Nitrox!" the blonde finally said.

And thus before entering the realms each driver hastily began working on getting a filled nitrox booster installed in their vehicle, a simple and thankfully quick task.

Though once the second ring had formed in it's spot it became clear that one member of the Shadow Hunters was a bit behind... Jessica had no idea how to set up the Nitrox booster.

"Hey, Jess!" Xiomara yelled from her truck as she pulled up next to Jessica's small garage, "Get your stuff ready... we're not coming out of there unscathed!"

Jessica blinked twice contemplating what her team leader was saying before nodding in understanding.

As the final ring of the wheel appeared in its spot a blue portal opened in the middle of the three rings and Gig floated into the air saying loudly "the racing realm is open!" and thus every driver present drove their way onto the red track and began heading towards the portal.

"Oh man, this is awesome!" Jole said into the radio.

"You should get some of that excitement out of your head and focus friend," Kadeem said, "The drones are waiting for us on the other side."

"I work best under pressure," Jole said cockily only for most of the other drivers including Xiomara to roll their eyes.

One by one the members of the Teku, Metal Maniacs, and Shadow Hunter went past the boosters and shot into the portal.

"Uh... guys...?" Takeo said nervously only for his thoughts to be finished by the panicked yell from Monkey, "Where's the track?"

Xiomara grit her teeth to stop her heightened breath to show through despite the adrenaline already pumping strongly through her veins.

The fiery leader never wanted to admit fear regardless of the circumstance.

"There!" Kadeem said as he was the first to touch down on the track followed by Xiomara, Vert and Taro and everyone else following suit.

Even as the convoy of human drivers rode on through the track cruising at a good 130 MPH back at the Acceledrome Jessica was in the infirmary making sure she knew where every medication and tool was. Fortunately for her everything was neatly organized and as far as she could tell nothing was missing to stop her from considering this a fully functioning Emergency room with corresponding Operating Room to go with it.

"If I'm lucky I won't have to dawn the mask and go over the knife while we're here," Jessica said to herself as she looked over towards a large monitor which was currently showing Kadena's onboard camera.

Back inside the realm, the drivers had entered a fog to which it was nearly impossible to see in.

"Careful, who knows what could jump out at us in this fog," Kurt said nodding.

Yet, as the drivers continued on the treacherous path a hovering black and green recon drone was spying on the drivers feeding the information to the drone leader Gelorum who did nothing but scowl.

 _Tezla_ doesn't _know when to_ quit, Gelorum thought as the screen changed to show her Lieutenant RD-L1.

"Yes, Gelorum?" The drone said in an emotionless and mechanical voice.

"There are more human drivers... destroy them!" Gelorum said smirking sadistically.

"Understood," RD-L1 responded with a note of glee in his voice as he swerved his vehicle and past the convoy of drones following him.

RD-L1 zoomed past Kadeem who glared realizing that this drone was about to initiate an offensive.

"Watch out, a drone is heading straight for you all!" Kadeem said into the radio.

"Hitting us in the fog... smart," Takeo said more so to himself than to the others as he drove forward.

Finding himself behind all 10 drivers RD-L1 pulled a lever and engulfed his vehicle in the armour of ram mode before shooting the ram towards the cars in front of him.

The drivers closest to him were Monkey, Kurt, and Wyle and both of them were sent flying into the air along with Jole, Takeo and Vert, though Xiomara, Taro Kadeem and Karma were all able to dodge the attack.

Watching her teammates getting blasted aside like that made Xiomara's heart skip a beat as she yelled "Jole, Takeo!"

"Fine," Both boys said in almost complete unison, "Keep going, we'll catch up!" Takeo said even as he watched the dark green outline of the drone vehicle pass him.

Xiomara nodded as she looked into her rearview mirror and quickly sideswiped the drone vehicle as it attempted to pass her.

"Mess with my team you son of a bitch," the girl hissed ramming her truck against the drone SUV.

Mega Duty and RD-06 had roughly equal weight behind them so under normal circumstances this would have been half a battle of wills and half a battle of who get the upper hand sooner, yet unbeknownst to the fiery leader there was in for quite the surprise as the drone placed one of its Accelechargers into the scanner.

The car began to glow and then suddenly vanished leaving Xiomara turning straight towards the edge.

Slamming on her breaks and spinning her steering wheel in the other direction was enough to stop the truck from going over the edge.

"These drones are a bunch of cheaters," Xiomara commented into her radio as she sped off after the drone that had reappeared about fifty meters in front of her.

A fair bit of a way in on the track Taro and Kadeem had exited the fog and were closing in on three drones in front of them.

unfortunately for the two of them, 2 more drone vehicles were driving behind them in a clearly aggressive formation.

"Taro, we can take on this drones together!" Kadeem said.

Taro for his part was more concerned about what was ahead than behind, thus shifting up a gear he said "I'm going to pass you," and left Kadeem on his own.

Kadeem glared out his window before looking to the camera in his rearview and saw the drones approaching.

He took a turn to dodge an energy ball which blew up one of the electric rods on the side sending one of the drones flying off the edge.

"Nice try!" Kadeem said confidently taking a turn down a spirally part of the trick.

RD-L1 was not amused by this human and was more than ready to take him out having deduced him to be the leader.

"Engage grappling hook," the drone said into a radio of the other car driving with him.

The drone obediently shot it's grappling hook and attached itself to the back of Kadeem's vehicle. playing Suicide runner the drone allowed himself to be knocked off the track by it's leader

Kadeem had been entirely unaware of this until he felt the weight begin to pull him back as the drone car went over the edge.

Kadeem now in free fall quickly pressed on his parachute button and looked down to the track below him.

Vert who was passing a lower track slammed his breaks and skidded to a halt.

"I've got you Kadeem," He said engaging his own grappling hook.

The smile on Verts face faded in one instant when it became clear he had missed.

RD-L1 moved to the edge of the track where Kadeem had fallen off and while Vert was trying to pull his grappling hook back the machien shot an energy ball down at Kadeam blasting his parachute to pieces.

His fall once again speeding up Kadeem yelled trying to do something to get himself back onto the track.

Lani watched from the control room in a state of complete horror as all communication ceased with Kadeem.

Vert ran out of his car and looked down where Kadeem car disappeared from sight as it fell into the clouds.

The blonde surfer looked down into the clouds wishing he was missing something. Tears began forming in his eyes as he finally realized what had happened.

Slowly walking back to the Deora II Vert got into his vehicle and began driving off a burning determination to win the race for Kadeem igniting both his body and mind.

Meanwhile, on another path Takeo and Karma were driving side by side.

"So miss Eiss do you have any ideas?" Takeo said into the radio referring to a convoy of four drones in front of them.

"There's a turn up ahead," Karma responded calmly to the Japanese hotshot. "Draft together we'll slingshot past."

Takeo smiled and nodded driving up behind Chicane and allowed the natural marvel that was the Slipstream take hold of their vehicles.

The two cars which had been driving around the 150 MPH marks began speeding up and gaining ground on the convoy of drones in front of them.

"3,2,1," Karma said before saying loudly, "now!"

Drifting through the turn with accuracy worthy of masters both Karma and Takeo hit near perfect apexes through the turn and whisked right past the drones.

"Yes!" Takeo said grinning his eyes focused on the road ahead.

It was a good thing Takeo and Karma weren't ones to not dwell on a moment success for at that moment several streaks of lightning appears on the tracks in front of them.

The two swerved in different directions dodging the lightning bursts intent on slowing them down.

However as they were swerving to dodge the lightning one of the drones shot an Energy ball at the two and Takeo who was mid-turn when it came wasn't able to dodge. The green ball of energy hit his car square on leaving him still in his seat but the rest of his car in pieces around him.

The green ball of energy hit his car square on leaving him still in his seat but the rest of his car in pieces around him.

"Whoa!" He yelled even as he went crashed down towards the ground. Due to the angle of his vehicle when he was hit Takeo's chair flipped onto his side and Takeo barely managed to stop his head from taking a hit his arm taking most of the hit. Though this was far from an outcome to be cheered for as Takeo felt a painful crack in his arm making it clear he had broken it.

Karma who was too busy dodging the other Energy balls was unable to stop and help the other driver but she still voiced in, "Takeo's vehicle was destroyed, is anyone behind us."

"I'm on my way!" Jole said into the radio.

the Jester truck pulled up and stopped right next to Takeo a few seconds later with Jole getting out without hesitation to help his teammate to his feet.

"Come on bro we have a race to finish!" Jole said putting a hand around his friend's shoulder and supporting him and helping him towards the passenger side of the truck.

Further down the track Wylde with Monkey in his back seat was driving down the track his face showing nothing but a cold determination.

He had caught up with Vert at this point and attempted to pass him.

"Woah, Markie, same team!" Vert said a slight note of anger in his voice.

"The name is Wylde Vert!" Wylde responded with a very distinct note of anger in his voice.

Vert rolled his eyes even as he got a good look at a group of drones in front of them as well as a huge orb of white and blue electricity that the track arcked into.

"Hey Wylde," Vert said, "The drones will be distracted when they enter that thing, we might be able to use the opportunity to get past them with the nitrox." Vert said.

Wylde while not exactly thrilled at the idea of taking orders had to admit his former leader made a point.

"Alright, let's get this done!" Wylde said nodding.

The two drivers waited, keeping their speed at 150 MPH so as to not attract any unwanted attention until they were ready to move, and then the drones finally entered.

"Now!" Vert said pressing the button on his dash while Wylde did the same.

The blue flames from Deora II and the orange flames from SpineBuster were a symbol of the almost doubled speeds of the two racers who swiftly began catching up with the drones.

The former teammates drove side by side at the very least working together to make sure they caught up.

Sure enough just as Vert had predicted the drones didn't even notice them approach and by the time the two of

The two former friends zoomed straight past the drones in front of them.

"Go Wylde!" Wylde yelled while Vert also smiled at the success of their plan.

the track began spiralling but despite that the finish line could be seen plain and clear as being a good half a mile away.

The two drivers made a break for the portal but before they could they realized a ramp from set to let other cars off in front of them and before they passed it RD-L1 appeared right in front of them.

RD-L1 now in front of the drivers did what humans would call smiling as he hit the breaks slamming into the two cars once causing both Wylde and Vert to hit their heads on their wheels breaking their noses and barely avoiding worse while two of the cars from the Drone Convoy slammed into the backs of their cars leaving them stuck in place while the other two drones sped past them

Wylde and Vert looked in horror as the two drone cars sped past them and a mix of desperation and anger took hold of Vert's brain.

"No way!" He said hitting his jump jets to get into the air and get unstuck from the car in front of him.

Landing in front of the wrecked cars the driver made an attempt to chase the drones

Kurt appeared at that moment driving from the same ramp that RD-L1 had come from and even as Wylde managed to break free it became clear their opening was quickly closing." Vert, draft now!" Kurt said urgently.

"Vert, draft now!" Kurt yelled urgently.

Vert nodded as Kurt moved in behind him and the two began gaining momentum with the aid of the improved airflow.

The two drivers hit their Nitrox boosters and sped off in an attempt to catch up with the drones in front of them.

RD-L1 was not out of tricks however as once again he used the Warped Realm Accelecharger and teleported right in front of the speeding cars.

"NO!" Kurt yelled attempting to swerve out of the way along with Vert.

The two racers still hit the stationary vehicle on the side and both humans went spiraling out of the way Kurt landing at one of the poles smashing his car and making the engine stall and die while he himself barely escaped hitting his head against the side window.

Vert while able to scathe off that much was still sent into a dizzying spiral and when he finally managed to stop himself saw that it was too late, the Drones had already escaped.

Sitting there for a second Kurt tried to get out of the car realizing that in the crash he had managed to sprain his ankle and thus found himself leaning against his car for support.

The two Teku racers watched as RD-L1 raced through the portal his vehicle not totally damaged by the hit followed by Wylde.

Next to show up was Karma and Jole with his passenger Takeo.

"It's over guys," Karma said a note of anger and exasperation in her voice, "Kurt get in!"

"I'm going back for Kadeem," Vert said even if he knew in the depths of his mind he knew it was a fruitless endeavour.

Kurt looked down sorrowfully getting himself into the car and driving through the portal with Karma.

Xiomara who was towing Taros wrecked car and all the other drivers sped past Vert as they sped through the portal leaving the blonde surfer the only one left in the realm.

Lani looked at the timer inside the control room in horror before turning on her radio and saying "Vert you can't go after Kadeem!"

"Oh yeah, watch me!" Vert said angrily taking another turn up the spiral.

"Vert the portal only stays open for an hour, you only have a minute left you have to come through now!" Lani said pleadingly.

"Wait what! why didn't you say this earlier!" Vert asked astounded.

Lani had no response but Gig spoke up "Dr. Tezla felt it might distract you from your driving,"

Vert glared even as he passed the wreckage of the two drone vehicles that attempted to stop him and Wylde

He had to contemplate this for a second, the Blonde surfer really wished to go looking for his friend even if only to prove to himself he really was gone... but that wasn't going to happen.

"I'm coming out!" he said lightly hitting a fist on the dash angrily while spinning around and heading back for the exit.

"Come on Vert, come on!" Lani said anxiously looking at the remaining 30 seconds.

Vert who wasn't even noticing dashed right past the drone cars again, this time snagging an extra passenger as one of the drones attempted to grab him andattached itself to the side of the car while Vert himself pressed down on his Nitrox booster.

The countdown was reaching zero and Vert just barely got out, indeed if he had been driving any other car he wouldn't have made it given half of his vehicle got left behind along with the legs of the drone.

Vert sighed as he slowly unbuckled his seat belt.

It was slow until the drone smashed through the glass of his windshield and grabbed him by the throat. Vert in panic gripped the lever to open his door and sent the drone flying onto the air.

The drone hit the ground with a thud but still it was going crawling towards the nearest human which just so happened to be Monkey.

Just then however, a large tire ran over the underside of the drone squashing the circuits in it's lower chest forcing it to deactivate. Xiomara stepping out of the truck said, "is it dead?"

"Looks like it," Takeo said letting out a light groan as he clenched his arm in an awkward but easiest to bare angle. "You missed the head though!"

Xiomara rolled her eyes before kicking the drones head, "Better?" she asked.

"A bit,"

Just then an old station wagon painted in red and white medical colours pulled up in front of the assembled drivers with Jessica and Lani getting out.

"Come on what's the situation?" Jessica asked a note of seriousness and a slight note of authority in her voice, any timidness the Shadow Hunters medic had completely gone with the arrival of the injured drivers.

Kurt who was being helped by Karma stepped up and raised a hand to indicate injury, "Taros out for the count." he said gesturing to the 70 Road Runner on the opposite side.

Jessica nodded scanning the room.

"Jole get Takeo and Kurt to the infirmary, keep the limbs still we'll be there to help in a minute, you two," She said now pointing towards Wylde and Vert, "broken noses, lean forward and stem the flow with these," She said handing the two men bits of gauze, "I'll check and see if it needs to be re-aligned by other means in a second,"

"Is she always like this?" Monkey asked.

"Only when there are injuries around, trust me she's not nearly this outgoing when blood isn't involved," Xiomara responded a half smile on her face as the aforementioned Medic pulled open the door to the 70 Road Runner and began doing basic checks on Taro making sure he was breathing.

"Pulse is stable, breathing is unobstructed, 1st-degree burns on hands, car hit by electricity?" She asked.

"Didn't see it but it looked like it." Monkey admitted.

"Alright good to know, an electric shock then, we'll have to treat these burns and then hope there wasn't any brain damage." Jessica admitted sadly wishing she could do more to prevent the worst, but she'd learned over the years that sometimes you just couldn't do that.

"Alright well let's go deal with the other patients, Lani give me a hand," Jessica called.

"On it," Lani said as the two of them began pulling Taro towards the Station Wagon, the two albeit relatively slim girls still pulling the feat off.

"Alright, now someone has to say it... can we go again?" Jole asked excitedly.

Monkeys eyes opened in horror at this, "you want to go back in there! look what those drones dudes did to us!"

"Hey come on we made it out okay," Jole said.

"Though the sentiment is a bit off we do still need to stay focused... those powers the Drones had," Karma said contemplatively.

"Ah scrap it, I'm out of here, they ain't doing that to me again!" Monkey said angrily.

"And what would you do if the drones were everywhere?" Someone said clearly through a microphone.

All the drivers still out with the parked vehicles looked up to see in a metallic suit a white-haired purple glasses wearing figure, one a few of them remembered as Peter Tezla the genius who first discovered the Accelerons and their driving nonsense.

"We have work to do," He said before at barely a limp walking backwards.

Xiomara glanced around seeing they were down 8 drivers and one potential driver at the infirmary either getting treated or treating.

"I'm going to go get 40 Somethin fueled and ready to go," Xiomara said, "We're going to need an extra pair of hands and given the state of the other cars..."

"Good call, let's not make Jessica miss out on the rush the second time!" Jole said smiling.

 **A/N - Long time no** see **my friends.**

 **ha a bit too long, I wouldn't blame you guys if you weren't going to read this but eh I'll still post it,**

 **I do have plans to get the next chapters out MUCH faster** thann **this one, I've got drafted chapters ready for edits up to chapter 6 or so so that is good news for** you **lads and lasses.**

 **Nothing else really to say so I guess I'll just take a bow**

 **until next time Ashbringerr36 out**


	3. Chapter 3 Help

Chapter 3

Help

Outside the Acceledrome the sun was setting and darkness was taking hold, yet despite this within the Acceledrome everyone who could life a wrench was hard at work on fixing the cars.

The only exception to this was Jessica who instead of a wrench was sporting a pair of latex gloves and was just finishing fixing Verts nose.

"I'd give you doctors orders to stay away from the wheel for at least a few weeks but given the circumstances," Jessica admitted. finishing having just finished applying a brace to hold the bone in place having already cauterized the wound to stop the bleeding.

"No time for that right?" Vert said nodding.

"Yeah just be careful, you reopen that wound and you will be bed ridden like it or not," Jessica said seriously.

"Got it," Vert said getting up and nodding and walking out of the infirmary.

"How did you learn all that?" Lani asked walking out of the opposite room where she had been checking on Taro.

"Eh that's a tale for another time," Jessica said clearly a little uneasy about the topic, "still kind of funny, I'm a driver yet I know my way with a scalpel better than a wrench,"

"Yeah, that is quite the predicament... wait, Scalpal?" Lani asked confused, "Do you mean that?"

"Literal sense, yep... fully certified surgeon," Jessica said, "Though I have to say... those exo-suits are a big help in healing fractures, Tezla could make a fortune if he patented them and sold them for common use."

"Well he's got more important things to worry about," Lani said with a roll of her eyes.

Jessica nodded, of course, the drones were a threat that needed to be dealt with, and if the stories Vert told her about what those cars could do were true then the issue was indeed a serious one and given how governments can operate something told her that outside attention would only make it harder.

"Alright well, I'll clean up in here and be out there to help on the cars, five minutes," Jessica said to a nod from Lani who then proceeded to walk out.

In the garage at this time, Xiomara got out from under Mega Duty and found herself wiping sweat from her head.

Having already finished installing the nitrox into the 40 Somethin she had begun doing a check on the suspension on her truck, though it was clear that the suspension was as heavy duty as the rest of the truck she had still taken several bad hits and had found several parts that had come loose.

A loud thud was heard from the car beside her and this made the leader shake her head in exasperation while she quickly walked towards the garage. sure enough, Takeo with a metal brace on his arm was kneeling over the engine of the Jester with Jole underneath it.

"Takeo!" Xiomara almost yelled making the Japanese hotshot jump and look back to his leader, "You're not supposed to be working!"

"Yes mom," Takeo said shaking his head.

"Don't even give me that," Xiomara said angrily, "your arm is broken, what's the betting Jessica will have something to say about this?"

"She said he's good to go just no lifting," Jole interjected rolling out from under the truck.

"Why do I doubt that?" Xiomara asked.

"I wouldn't be able to tell you that," Takeo said turning back to the engine.

"No she doesn't believe you because you are known for leaving out a few key words when quoting me," came the voice of Jessica walking towards them, "In this case the boys are telling the truth,"

Xiomara nodded deferring to her friend's judgment on this matter, "Great, the Nitrox is in your car by the way,"

"Thanks," Jessica said nodding before turning around to the sound of a loud thud and groan from the Teku garage. "Duty calls," she said nodding before running off in the other direction.

Kurt who had ended up dropping something on his good foot was limping away from the underside of the new car, the Vehicle having been put together with a frame that had been getting worked on prior to the arrival of the three teams.

"Hey you okay?" Jessica called to Kurt.

"Yeah I'm fine, nothing's broken," he said glaring at the laughter coming from the Metal Maniac side of the garage.

Jessica also rolled her eyes at the Maniacs response to the plight of the in question driver looking back to Kurt saying, "it still looks sprained, I'll get you a brace and then you can get back to work."

"Hey... you guys hear music by chance?" Takeo was heard asking.

"Oh, that must be my ride!" Monkey said excitedly, "I got in touch with Tork, told him what happened,"

Eery driver present clued into the fact that the loud blaring techno music would never, in a million years be the staple of a Metal Maniac vehicle.

Sure enough two brightly colored vehicles, Synkro and Baseline made the jump through the portal with the drivers of the cars stepping out.

"Yo, let's pump up the baseline!" The other driver, Shirako Takamoto said.

"Say goodbye ear drums," Jessica found herself thinking even as a rumbling engine was heard and a third car, the red painted Hollowback stopped with the muscle bound Maniac leader stepping out.

"Now that is my ride!" Monkey said happily walking towards the car, "Hey let's get out of here Tork."

Tork looked at the mechanic and shook his head, "after what you said the drones did to you Taro and Wylde, no way!" Tork said

"That's the idea of leaving Tork so they don't do it again!" Monkey said exasperation lining his voice.

"Nobody does this to my guys, we're welded!" Tork said stepping around Monkey and glanced around the maniacs, "Wheres Taro"

"In the infirmary, unconscious but fine," Jessica explained formally and calmly.

"Alright thanks," The maniacs leader said.

"Hey, Maniac, the Junkyards on the other side of the desert!" Nolo yelled at Tork.

Tork glared at Nolo saying in a threatening voice "You better watch it punk!"

Nolo was stretching his arms out clearly an attempt to start a fight but just then a loud horn was heard and a large truck came bursting through the holographic doorway of the Acceledrome.

"Oh boy," Monkey said as the truck came to a stop and a hulking man who'd put the prime Arnold Schwortznegger to shame stepped out, "You really didn't have to come Pork Chop... woah," Monkey said before having his knapsack grabbed the Pork Chop and held in the air.

"Alright, who did this to you!" Pork Chop yelled

"Stop monkeying around Pork Chop!" Tork said authoritatively.

Monkey who was at this point running out of air said "you're... killing me," while Pork Chop unaware of this fact said angrily, "whatever"

"Okay back up has arrived," Jessica said smiling, "Should we... maybe get to work?"

"Right, introductions later," Tork said nodding obviously agreeing with the sentiment of the young medic.

Nolo glared at Tork before all four of the new drivers got back in their vehicles and drove towards their given garages.

The day went onward with everyone doing their part to get cars ready and working, hour by hour until finally all the tension was broken by the alarm going off signaling the next realm was opening.

"Alright let's go!" Jole yelled enthusiastically running straight for Jester.

"Right behind you," Jessica said all her previous notions of pure calm and collectedness vanishing.

Though several racers were clearly unable to take to the track, namely Takeo still had barely a skeleton of a car put together and Monkey even if he was willing to enter the realm hadn't quite gotten everything done on Rollin Thunder, having instead been helping Pork Chop rearrange for the new buttons in his car Jack Hammer.

Engines roared to life as the currently active drivers took to the track, though not before Pork Chop accidentally slammed into Chicane sending Karmas car way off the course before crashing against a metal beam with a loud thump that indicated chassis damage.

"urgh, maniacs!" she cursed getting out of the car.

Thus Kurt, Vert, Nolo, Shirako, Pork Chop, Wylde, Taro, Tork, Takeo, Xiomara, and Jessica raced onto the track each one ready to take on the drones, some for the first time others for the second time and looking for some payback

The portal opened and Tezla said over the radio, "You have one hour!"

Jessica nodded her hand hovering over the red button on her steering wheel ready to hit her new nitrox booster... oh she was looking forward to that. She'd get her chance and this became more apparent than ever when the drivers hit the portal

Lush green swamps met the drivers in this realm as each of them hit the moss covered track and moved forward at their idea of cruising speeds.

Out of sight of the convoy of human drivers several Drone recon drones were being destroyed by car sized mosquitos and this knowledge was certainly causing anger in the otherwise calm visage of the drones leader.

"You'll have to find your own line!" Gelorum had begrudgingly said to her lieutenant.

"Understood," RD-L1 said leading his own convoy of drones a half a mile ahead of the humans.

Fu

"Excellent, we'll start sticking it to Gelorum next realm huh?"

"indeed, we will as you say 'stick it' to Gelorum next time," and with that the robotic former servants of Gelorum flew off, keeping a distance from the drivers.

The human drivers were certainly a long way from catching up with the drones but that thought wasn't in their minds as they came to an impasse with several tracks leading in separate directions.

"Hey uh, paths... I'd say less taken but none of these paths look like they've ever been taken!" Takeo said.

"Yeah which one do we take?" Tork asked.

"It is likely best if you all split up," Tezla said through the coms knowing that Lani wouldn't give that order not least because of the scowl she had on her face as she turned her head away from him.

"Copy that, Teku we're splitting up, stay online!" Nolo said taking a turn onto one of the paths.

"Let's move some metal Maniacs!" Tork said reaching the end of the track and taking the path on the right.

"Fade from Sight Hunters," Xiomara said as she took the path left of where Tork had gone.

And thus they were off.

Each of the paths was wildly different at the beginning though it also became clear that several of them intersected at one point or another which allowed several racers to meet back up eventually.

The first confrontation occurred on the path that Xiomara took alone she when she found a convoy of drones in front of her.

"Payback time!" she said shifting up one more gear and beginning to catch up with her opponents.

The three drones in front of her were clearly not the brightest circuits in the motherboard given even as she rammed into the first one and then the second sending both flying off the track landing with explosions. Even with its comrades destroyed the third drone did nothing as it too was sent off the track.

with explosions being heard the fiery leader smirked as she zoomed on forward before suddenly screeching to a halt seeing a blocked track.

Sadly Xiomara didn't have great breaks on the heavy truck and didn't stop fast enough to stop herself crashing. This left her forced to swerve off the track and go tumbling off the track.

The track was a good twenty feet off the ground but thanks to the reinforced chasis Xiomara was still in the race after landing on the ground. She glanced around when she'd finally hit the ground and saw that though overgrown with moss and other obstructions she had actually landed on a red track with arrows pointing right under a large tree with a path Xiomara knew must be teeming with road blocks of the natural variety.

"Well not the worst thing to ever happen," she said stomping down on the pedal and racing off once again.

Meanwhile, Jessica had just had the track she had taken meet back up with Vert and Taro.

"Dam I wish I'd thought to redo the suspension," Jessica said angrily displaying that the 40 Somethin was a slick street car and not quite intended for the off road.

Taro and Vert didn't pay much heed to this, though that was half due to the realization that something was on its way. a huge mosquito was heading straight for the drivers, in particular, landing on Taros car, Taro being in the lead.

Both the younger drivers watched as the large beast was attempting to stab with it's stinger through the roof of Taros new car Riveted, that is until from the other driver's point of view the creature got stuck in the roof. In reality, Taro had grabbed it and was holding it in place.

Unable to move the oversized bug ended up smashing into the track as the drivers went past an overpass.

"Good move," Jess commented even if she herself felt slightly nausious at hearing the sound made by the flesh hitting track.

n another part of the track Pork Chop with Monkey in the passanger seat were heading towards a set of pathes with Jole driving right behind them, one shrouded in fog and clearly interrsecting and the other clear and straighter... but going over water.

"Hey Pork Chop, it looks pretty clear across the water," Monkey said nodding to himself as if to affirm what he was seeing.

Pork Chop hiding a scared look took the other path before saying in a cocky tone "who needs easy!"

Yet Jole who had opted to not waste time on difficulty had taken the path over the water, a large mistake given the mosquitos were quite fond of the water.

Driving across the water three of the large mosquitos had caught sight of the lone driver and one had already taken the plunge landing on top of Jester and beginning to stab through the roof with its stinger.

Jole normally would have responded to a situation like this with a witty and what some would call hair brained idea, however, the moment he caught sight of the pointed end of the mosquitos stinger something snapped.

With a look of horror on his face, Jole slammed his fist into the button on his dash activating his nitrox booster.

The speed boost was enough to dislodge the mosquito and gave him enough speed to at least for now prevent more from attaching to the car.

"Dammit!" Jole said his heart racing after that close encounter though not losing his focus on the road instead simply determined to get away from the creatures that for reasons he would never admit terrified him more then anything else in the realm

Meanwhile driving across what was later revealed to be the primary path with all the other tracks reverting back to it were Vert and Jessica. the two of them had disbanded from Taro earlier opting to take a different path and it became clear that they had made the quickest choice.

"Portals up ahead," Vert said excitedly.

"It can't be that easy," Xiomara said into the radio feeling skeptical that she hadn't heard some yell of terror from the drivers at the end of the track indicating one final blast of power the realm had to throw against the drivers.

Turns out the Shadow Hunters leader was correct in her skepticism as a large roar was heard and a mountain like a creature awakened with control over vines attempting to grab the drivers.

Vert and Jessica looked around horrified both making quick swerves to dodge the first of the vines.

Vert however who hadn't expected the followup was grabbed in the second attempt and pulled into the air.

Jessica retaining ga calm determination pressed down on the button connected to her nitrox booster. Purple flames blasted from the back of her car and she was immediately blasted to 300 MPH. RD-L1 made it appeared behind them and was at this moment very much ready for the vines.

Using the monument realm Accelecharger the drones vehicle flattened to 2 dimensions making it far easier to dodge the vines.

Vert from where he was being held aobve the track and swiftly shot his grappling hook at the drone, the grappling hook like a glitch in the code of the computer chip like accelecharger forced it to deactivate and short out the scanner, unprepared for this RD-L1 was swiftly grabbed and held in the air with no escape.

The drone roared in anger even as he watched the human attempt to take on the vines.

The problem became clear however as Jessica took a turn in her standard way, drifting through the apex and this proved to be a fatal error as the moss of the side of the track made her lose traction and sure enough that loss of control led directly to the capture of the driver.

In the air RD-L1 determined to at least get something out of his failure was already pulling himself free from his car and beginning to climb towards the nearest human, that being Vert.

The next driver to take a shot at it was Pork Chop with Jole driving behind him.

Trying to dodge the vines that were at this point swarming around them these two made it barely 50 meters farther then Jessica before also getting caught, Monkey saying disapprovingly, "You did not stay in the groove pork chop!" with the angry mutterings of Pork chop going unheard by the mechanic.

Back in the acceledrome Karma and Takeo were both sitting in the spot not far from where cars would exit the realm, the two having opted for a few minutes of meditation, something the raven haired racer hadn't expected the far from calm hotshot to have any interest in.

Though any calm the two had was shattered as the yelling from the radio was heard over the intercom.

"What is going on," Takeo asked rhetorically.

"I guess we should go find out, come on," Karma said getting to her feet along with Takeo.

Within the realm, there were three more drivers preparing to take on the vines. Wylde, Nolo, and Tork. Nolo had been sent spinning out just at the point where some would say the code of the realm would dictate the vines begin attacking.

Slamming his fists against his steering wheel Nolo began contemplating his next move as he glanced upwards at all the other drivers and their given predicament.

As he did so Wylde and Tork were drafting, making it farther than anyone else had as of yet, however, the only problem was the two of the were falling into the same trap Jessica had getting a bit too close to the sides and losing traction due to the moss.

Monkey attempted to warn them but it was too late the vines had already caught the two Metal Maniacs.

"What's happening?" Lani yelled watching one by one cameras went offline as they were grabbed by the vines.

"They didn't make it Lani," Vert said looking downwards where the track was. This moment was when the glass of his windshield and a hand the size of his torso grabbed him by the chest.

"Your head is next human!" RD-L1 said angrily however before the drone could do anything he was stabbed through the chest by a mosquito. lights of his head going off the drone fell limp and tumbled off the car.

Vert let a sigh of relief escape his mouth before a yell of terror was forced from him again as a vine gripped him by the wrist and began pulling. This situation or one similar to it was universal to all the caputred drivers with the creatures of the realm slowly tearing apart the vehicles and there was nothing any of them could do about it... well no one in the vines at least.

Nolo glared up at the Swamp beast and it, in turn, glared down at him even as he spun around and began making an attempt at what the others had all failed at.

Lani attempted to warn him but Nolo remembering his brother's words began tuning everything else out and attempted to as his brother had put it, stay in the groove. He slowed his breathing, his heart rate slowed and adrenaline slowly left his brain. this state of intense focus was something that could only be achieved in times of true crisis and Nolo put it to good use.

Two drones appeared on the track racing behind Nolo but unfortunately for the robotic drivers so to was a missing driver.

From a track no one had noticed came Xiomara who hit a ramp and landed right between the two drone vehicles.

"Alright Nolo, show us what the Teku can do," she said as she engaged her trucks grappling hook and then slammed on her breaks.

The drone car behind her slammed into Mega Duty doing little to even make the huge truck budge while it itself was totaled and the one in front was sent off course by the snapping grappling hook and ended up spinning out.

With the drones out of the way it was now Nolo versus the swamp beast and it was a battle the Teku leader refused to lose.

Motivated by the memory of his brother it was as if everything else in the world just stopped existing and it was just him, his line and the Swamp beast.

He activated his nitrox booster and was thrust forward to 300 Miles per hour, a blast of blue escaping from his back tires. Seeing the moss and knowing the middle of the track would give him the most traction he raced through the track using his speed to dodge the vines instead of actually dodging.

The vines could hardly keep up, the portal was approaching fast, one final jump and then... he was gone through the portal.

With the green symbol gone from the blue glowing portal a burst of green emanated from it.

As if it was a call for retreat all the beasts of the swamp began fleeing away from the trapped uncoiled and let the cars fall to the track.

Each human driver revved up and headed for the portal, all except Vert who realized as his engine stalled. He'd taken a beating this realm and now had a car that didn't want to start.

Xiomara pulled up beside him rolling down her window as she yelled, "I'll tow you through, come on I've got a winch in the back."

Vert got out of Power Rage and attached the winch to the bumper of his car while the fiery leader of the Shadow Hunters attached it to her truck.

The two stepped into the truck and took off following everyone else through the portal

The two racers got back just in time to hear the beginnings of an argument, Nolo and Tork ready to go at it

"Tork!" Nolo yelled to get the African American drivers attention, "this hasn't changed anything! I'm still taking you down!"

Markie made a move to defend but was stopped by a hand gesture from Tork who responded almost dismissively, "anytime you're ready Nolo, anytime,"

Xiomara and Jessica were both rolling their eyes at this, neither realizing just how deep this rivalry went.

"Now now guys come on," Jole said speaking up with his well-known lack of filter between his brain and his mouth, "We need to get the cars fixed if we want to beat the drones again, we can murder each other later!"

"Well that's a nice way of putting it," Karma said a note of sarcasm in her voice as she, Lani and Takeo walked out of the elevator.

Nolo glared daggers at Tork for one more moment before the two leaders nodded and began walking away towards their cars.

The Teku and the Maniacs had all headed for their own given Garages leaving the Shadow Hunters to wonder just what had happened.

"Well... this is shaping up to be one heck of a ride," Jessica said smiling albeit somewhat lamely.

"You wanted adventure Takeo... now you've got it!" Xiomara said turning to the hotshot.

Takeo just smiled at that "And facing that adventure with my family, I'd have it no other way."

 **A/N - Hi lads and lasses? what's up?**

Okay **nothing to** say **this time, no grovelling for forgiveness for a wait time this time around so I guess all I am going to say is I'd love to hear** feedbackl **.**

 **Until Next Time Ashbringer36 out**


	4. Chapter 4 Newcomers

Chapter 4

Bonds of Blood

Three weeks had passed since the Swamp realm and so far nothing really interesting had happened, at least interesting by the drivers currently set standards.

Two more realms had opened, the Cavern realm in which they had won and the Lava Realm in which case the Drones had won.

However at this point that had been a week ago and with all the cars fueled up, all repaired and good to go for the first time in a long time it was actually rather dull in the Acceledrome.

And thus this was the exact reason for the four Shadow Hunters to be sitting or laying depending on which one on the floor on the top part of the rafters with a deck of cards between them as they played a friendly game of pass the ace.

"You don't want this card, Xiomara!" Jessica said.

"Yeah I do hand it over Jessica," Xiomara responded desperately wanting to get rid of the two she had in her hand.

Jessica shrugged and the two girls traded cards only for Xiomara to say out loud, "crap,' as she realized her friend had an ace... the lowest card in the game.

"I'll stay," Jessica said obviously not needing to gamble away the 2 given she knew Xiomara was stuck with an ace.

Everyone flipped their given cards Takeo revealing a Jack and Jole revealing a 10.

"Well it's about time," Takeo said referring to the fact Xiomara hadn't lost before this, this being her first strike.

"Hey you're still the one with two strikes, one more and you're pulling out the bucket and sponge," Xiomara said shrugging.

"I'm not out of this yet!" Takeo said grinning before suddenly hearing inside his racing suit a loud ringing indicating his phone was going off.

Holding out a hand to indicate 'one moment' he got to his feet and pulled the smartphone out of his suit and seeing an unfamiliar number,

Pressing down on the green answer button he put the phone to his ear and asked, "hello who is this?"

"Only the most interesting person known to Takeo Miraki," Came a cheerful female voice from the other side.

Takeo couldn't help but let a childish grin appear on his face as he said "ah, Imoto what have you been up to?" he said.

"Oh not much Ani just finally managed to get to America to come visit you, you did say you were in Los Angelas didn't you,"

Hearing this Takeo said extremely happily but with a note of unease, "Oh I can be there in about an hour, no longer than an hour and a half," he said, "I'm out of the city right now, which airport are you at?"

"South," The person on the other side of the phone said.

"Alright I'll be there to come and get you," he said.

"No need, I had some transportation of my own brought over, do you have perhaps a pastry shop we could go to?" She asked.

"Alright north side mall we'll meet up there," Takeo said, "See you soon Imoto,"

"See you soon Ani," The other person said before hanging up.

"Imoto?" Xiomara asked curiously getting to her feet also.

"It means younger sister, whom that was," Takeo said smiling, "She's asked me to come and meet her, it's been quite some time."

"Go for it!" Jole said, "Bro family is real important," and to prove his point he put an arm on his sister's shoulder.

"Alright, I'll be back soon," Takeo said smiling before walking off towards his car.

"So... do we say he lost?" Jessica asked.

"He wouldn't do that to us," Jole said shaking his head, "Guess we call it a draw?"

"Good call," Xiomara said getting to her feet and saying, "I'm going to go get some grub, if a fight broke out up there it's probably already over,"

While the four racers of the Shadow Hunters went and split up Karma meanwhile was busy testing her cars maximum speed.

It was a favoured pastime of the raven haired perfectionist, hoping to push herself to the level of a perfect driver.

Though some had said it was a path with no fruit Karma was determined to attain perfection, and the first step was pushing her car beyond its limits.

Despite the focus on her speedometer and other interior workings of Chicane, she could still see plain and clear a driver approaching her car, namely Kurt.

"What is it?" Karma asked.

"Just coming to see how your mission is coming along," Kurt said.

Karma couldn't help but roll her eyes at this even as she pulled her keys out of the ignition and stepped out of the car.

"it's coming along fine," She said, "Now I get the feeling you came for more than to check on my progress with Chicane, so what do you want?"

"Well you haven't exactly eaten yet so here," Kurt said handing the driver a hamburger that had been taken from the mess hall, "Figured since you'd forget to eat without it,"

"Thank you, Kurt," She said taking the wrapped delicacy from him. "Now if you don' mind I need to finish this."

Kurt for his part shrugged and stepped away from Karma who placed the food she had been given beside the computer in which she began taking a closer look at numbers from her car.

Though Karma was obviously very absorbed in her work so was Monkey in his attempts to design a new Nitrox booster, one that allowed the boost to be used in reverse.

"Monkey," someone called from behind him.

Monkey turned away from his chemistry table to see that Tork was the one who spoke. "You wanted me to take a batch of Nitrox?"

"Oh yeah, thanks, Tork," Monkey said.

"You sure it won't blow up?" Tork asked cautiously.

"Positive, worst case scenario the engine is blown, best case scenario it works perfectly." He said smiling.

"Engine blown?" Tork asked before shaking his head, "alright get up to the control room and let's do this!" he said.

And thus everyone found something to do at the Acceledrome yet as this was the case Takeo a good hour later had made it to the city, admittedly making use of the Nitrox booster and the fact it wasn't illegal to speed on the flats to make it there a lot faster than was to be expected.

Thus using several side streets few people thought to use the driver finally made his way to the mall where by sheer chance he found his sister plain as day.

Despite it being two years since they had last seen each other in person Takeo could still tell the wild look of his sister out from the rest of the crowd.

Sakura Miraki stood leaning against a pink motorcycle with long purple hair that went down to her lower back, a pair of leather fingerless gloves adoring a pink T-shirt, sweats and a pair of boots.

Takeo pulled up beside her and rolled down the window smiling, "Good to see you Sakura he said. smiling.

"To you as well Takeo," Sakura said smiling. "Now go and park, doughnuts on me," she said.

Takeo smiled and nodded driving away finding a parking spot rather easily.

As the two siblings stepped into the mall Takeo found himself compelled to ask the one question that he knew had to be addressed first.

"You're here without an escort, do our parents know about this?" He asked.

"Well they know I'm on a trip to America and they think I have an escort," Sakura began, "Grandpa said perhaps coming to America and seeing what working is like would set me straight."

"They haven't figured out that he's on our side have they?" Takeo asked chuckling now.

"They are without a clue," Sakura said chuckling as well before grabbing her brother around the shoulder with one hand and saying "Now come on no need to interrogate me, You're the one who has been having adventures for the last two years... so first question, what's with the skull."

"My team symbol," Takeo said nodding.

"Oh so you got a team together, you leading?" Sakura asked excitedly.

"Nope, I'm not leading the team, they offered me a spot after I raced against the leader," Takeo said.

"Oh, well they any good," Sakura asked her interrogation not letting up even as the two of them finally made it to the outside of a pastry shop.

"Really good," Takeo said smiling, "They've got my back and I've got theirs... I would hardly call it a team actually."

Sakura raised an eyebrow to this but before she asked Takeo elaborated, "more like a family,"

"So you guys pull each other out of the fire very often I take it," Sakura said genuinely intrigued.

"Well yeah, I mean racing against robots and all," He said before slamming a hand over his mouth realizing what he had just let slip.

"Racing against... robots?" Sakura asked raising an eyebrow.

Takeo was saved at least for a moment by the fact the two of them had finally made it to the front of the line, "Two Boston creams and two bottles of soda," Sakura asked.

The person behind the counter was quick grabbing what they asked for as quickly as it took for Sakura to pull out a 10 dollar bill and hand it to the person.

The two took their stuff and sat down at a table in the corner of the small restaurant.

"What's all this about robots?" Sakura asked quizzically.

"Oh well you see, my team, well they are also sci-fi nuts," Takeo said.

"You wouldn't have covered your mouth like that if it was that," Sakura said raising an eyebrow.

Takeo sighed, "How are you even willing to believe that?"

"I know my ani-chan enough to know he wouldn't make up nonsense like that unless it wasn't so much nonsense" Sakura responded smiling.

Takeo shook his head realizing there was no way out of this.

"Alright look, my team, the Shadow Hunters were recruited along with two other teams to race inside these realms for racing against these Racing Drones," Takeo explained knowing that at this point his sister was definitely on the verge of believing him.

"Well then," Sakura said smiling, "Room for a cyclist?"

"Excuse me?" Takeo said stunned at this statement... she couldn't possibly be thinking.

"Well I want in, or else I just might get a bit chatty you know? Ani-chan saving the planet and all," Sakura said a mischevious grin appearing on her face.

Takeo sighed at this, "Dam, alright fine, but you're going to need to let us upgrade your bike a bit, and a few test runs will be in order."

"I can deal with that," Sakura said.

"And there are several rules in place," Takeo said making Sakura's smile fade almost instantly, "and some of them even I would have your head if you break,"

Sakura pondered this for a second, she had come to America hoping to find some freedom, not be tied down by more rules.

No, that's the same reason Takeo left for America on even less good terms with their parents before he left, if he thought this was a good idea then surely these rules wouldn't be too unreasonable.

"I guess I can deal with that, now come on let's go," Sakura said getting to her feet, "be sure to show me the Batcave,"

"You've been reading American visual novels?' Takeo asked grinning.

"Well, I admit Justice League and these DC comics I've been finding, a lot more interesting than most of the anime I would find."

"You didn't find the right one for you is all," Takeo responded smiling.

"You showed me half of them," Sakura said rather accusingly.

"Doesn't mean I knew you'd like them," Takeo responded shrugging.

Despite theJapanese hotshots unease at bringing his little sister into the mix he and she still maintained a playful banter all the way out of the city, having synced up the in-car radio with Sakura's headpiece.

However, the most notable bit of these antics came when the two racers made it to the desert flats and began passing the fallen Highway 35 sign.

"Hey bro I'll race you to that box thingy," Sakura said before doing a wheelie and hitting her noss.

Takeo grinned as he watched his sister take a lead, letting her believe he had begun falling behind.

"Remember those improvements I told you about Sakura?" He asked.

"Don't try to distract me," Sakura said.

"Takeo grinned as he reached down and pressed the red button on his dash that activated his nitrox booster.

going from 150 to 300 MPH in less then 2 seconds the 24/seven whisked right past the Pink Blaze the purple flames an indication of how much ground she'd lost!

Takeo stopped his car right in front of the broken down cube a good 10 seconds ahead of his sister who stopped her cycle right in front of him giving him a middle finger.

"Oh don't give me that," Takeo said grinning before turning serious. "Now come on, from this point on it's actually a bit harder to find the entrance to the Batcave or Acceledrome as Tezla called it."

Sakura nodded as she began following her brother, .

"Now sis, I'm going to warn you this is going to freak you the hell out, just trust me," he said.

"You underestimate my nerve," Sakura said.

"If the opening wasn't here this would be a suicide run, and it's impossible to actually see the opening," Takeo responded.

That made the cyclists colour fade. she gulped as the two took the final turn.

Sure enough, the two of them were about to take a jump right into the face of a large cliff.

It was instinct to slam her breaks but her brother wasn't slowing down and so she fought the urge with every fiber of her being. She closed her eyes as her tires left solid ground,

Expecting to feel a loud crash as her life came to an end Sakura felt her tires find solid ground again and opened her eyes just in time to see that they had landed inside a large base of operations that functioned as a very much working base of operations.

"Sweet," Sakura said slowing to a stop right beside her brother's sports car.

"Yeah I said the same thing," Takeo said smiling, "I guess... I should probably start with a tour."

Sakura was about to respond but before she did a cheery voice called over to them. "Yo Takeo, is this your sister?" Jole yelled over at them.

Sakura glanced over at the redhead driver and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and let one of her lips curl up as she caught a look at the driver in question

 _He's cute,_ Sakura thought to herself thankfully having not taken her helmet off.

"Yeah, Sakura this is Jole, I guess you could say he's the second in command," Takeo said.

"Pleasure," Jole said holding out a hand to Sakura.

"To you as well, "Sakura said, "Maybe we can do intros when I've put the bike away yeah?"

"Oh yeah sure thing, there's an open spot in our garage," Jole responded nodding,

The two drivers nodded in response before Takeo revved up and lead Sakura down to the Shadow Hunters garage.

Parking her bike in the area beside Jole the purple haired girl got off her bike and placed her helmet on top of it.

"Ah, so when you said you were going to meet your sister I didn't hear anything about bringing her back here," Came a bit of a disapproving voice.

Takeo and Sakura turned to the direction the voice came from and Sakura was treated to a view of probably one of the toughest girls she'd ever seen, red hair and leather jacket it was hard to say this person was anything other than tough as nails, and she'd spoken to Takeo with quite the bit of authority as well which didn't quite register with Sakura.

"Yeah well conversations got onto a topic they shouldn't have and I know she can't keep her mouth shut," Takeo said.

"Well not a bad call then," Xiomara responded nodding she herself not really caring about the secrecy requirement but instead just not wanting to deal with a long winded discussion from Tezla.

"Who is this?" Sakura blurted out.

"Oh right intros," Takeo said, "Xiomara this is Sakura my younger sister, Sakura this is Xiomara my team leader,"

"Wait a second," Sakura said taking a step back looking at her brother, "Weren't you the one who said you weren't getting involved with any women?"

Xiomara raised her eyebrow at this and crossed her arms while Takeo just shook his head, "I meant in romantic fashion Sakura so don't even go there,"

Sakura chuckled before shrugging.

"Am I always the last person to show up to these lovely meetings," Came a far more cheerful female voice.

Sakura once again seeing the last member of her brother's team, the brunette seemed less tough then Xiomara in her eyes at least, actually, she gave off a more soothing aura.

"And finally Sakura this is Jessica our teams medic," he said.

"Pleasure to meet you," Jessica said smiling.

"You too," Sakura said smiling shaking Jessicas hand a mischievious thought appearing in her mind. "You know Jessica, you and Takeo..."

"And we're done here!" Takeo said cutting his sister off.

"Defensive hm?" Sakura said grinning "Maybe it ddoesn't need to be suggested,"

Jessica raised an eyebrow at this having legitimately never thought about any relationship with Takeo and knowing he had never thought of one either.

More would have been said but just then over the intercom Dr. Tezlas voice came over the intercom

"All drivers report to the conference room!" Tezla's voice came over the intercom.

"You did this all on your own," Xiomara said shaking her head and gesturing to Takeo, "You can deal with the old man."

 **A/N - been a while? no excuses but a bit of lackluster inspiration. so... if you're still reading this thanks for sticking with me.**

Okay **so one quick announcement. I've got a** pooll **up on my profile, you can choose two of my current projects that you'd like me to focus on and finish first. I'll be giving some level of attention to all of them BUT I would** stil llike **to know which one has the most readership so I know what to focus on more** vigoriously **.**

 **Okay that's about it. so**

 **Until Next Time Ashbringer36 Out**


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